Computer Info –
This Week’s Meeting
More on Quicken – Assets, Liabilities and Loans. Look at the Lady Liberty with the fireworks – and Netscape’s ability to save an entire web page. An article from Smart Computing dealing with Avoiding Self-Assisted Computer Disasters. And questions.
The next meeting will be July 16th.
Lady Liberty
http://www.wtv-zone.com/cal555/10fwd/lady/LLa/LL.html
You can download the Lady Liberty (the Statue of Liberty with the fireworks) at this web location.
Quicken
Property and Loans
Click
Property and Loan on Quick Tab.
Here
we can record actual assets and liabilities (including value on your home). Setting up assets and liabilities will link
to the banking, checking and credit card accounts. You can get a summary of the amount owed and
interest paid.
By
clicking on PLANNING
on the main menu of Property and
Net
Worth is the difference between your assets (what you own) and liabilities
(what you owe)
In
the
In
the Reports and Graphs, select a
TOPIC and select a REPORT. Graph it
according to a certain time frame -- after the graph created, you can use your
cursor to see what the assets and liabilities are -- double click to see what
accounts make up this information.
Speed Up Office Programs
If you are running Microsoft Outlook – that may be why your Word, Excel or PowerPoint are taking a long time to open or close. Microsoft Outlook keeps a record of everything the other Office programs do. It’s called journalizing. You can turn off the journalizing by opening Microsoft Outlook. Then click TOOLS – OPTIONS. Select the JOURNAL tab. Clear the check boxes in the ALSO RECORD FILES FROM list. Click APPLY – OK.
Computer Batteries
Why does my computer need a battery?
Most computers have a small battery. It will usually be in some type of holder so it is easy to replace (old ones were soldered directly onto the motherboard).
The battery powers a chip called the Real Time Clock (RTC) chip. This chip is essentially a quartz watch that runs all the time, whether or not the computer has power. When the computer boots up, part of the process is to get the correct time and date. The RTC chip also contains a random access memory. This extra RAM stores information in CMOS, like the number of hard drives, hard drive type, etc. If the CMOS RAM loses power, the computer may not know anything about the hard disk configuration of your machine, and therefore it cannot boot.
The
standard life time of a CMOS battery is around 10 Years,
however this amount of time can change depending on the use and environment
that the computer resides.
It's main purpose is to constantly keep alive the "CMOS" (configuration) memory, and to keep the computer's clock running when the computer is turned off. The CMOS stores all the basic information about the computer's configuration so the computer knows what it has in it. This allows the computer to "lift itself up by its own bootstraps " and start running as soon as it's turned back on - that's where the term "boot up" the computer comes from. You can check the configuration of your computer by running the Setup program at bootup time, usually by hitting the F-1 key or the Alt-Del keys (it tells you on the screen during bootup). Don’t be afraid to take a look at it. Once you're in the Setup program you can modify the configuration of the computer's system if you need to. Whenever you add new hardware, say a hard drive, to your system, the computer normally detects the change and automatically adjusts the CMOS for you. But it's a good idea to check.
Like a car battery, computer batteries eventually do run out and can’t be recharged anymore. When that happens, the computer doesn't know what it has in it and you're likely to get a message at bootup that there's no C drive, or else the computer won’t boot up at all. At that point you could try recharging the battery by leaving the computer running continuously for 4 or 5 days (with the monitor turned off). [Of course, you can still use the computer in the meantime when you want to by just turning the monitor back on.] If that doesn't work, you'll need to buy a new battery ($10 to $20).
Get
a replacement battery. Take the old one to the store and match them up. It
should be pretty easy to come by. The CR 2032 is a pretty standard size of
battery for us on motherboards. Once you find the correct battery model, you
may want to write it down somewhere.
Many modern computers are not quite so dependent on the CMOS RAM. They store the settings in non-volatile RAM that works without any power at all. If the battery goes dead, the clock fails but the computer can still boot using the information in the non-volatile RAM area.
Fizzer – Virus
Fizzer
is currently one of the most widespread viruses in the world.
Fizzer
is a complex e-mail worm that appeared on
The
Fizzer worm spreads in e-mails as an attachment with .EXE, .PIF, .SCR and .COM
extensions. The worm randomly selects attachment names and message subjects and
bodies from its internal lists. It collects e-mail addresses from Windows and
Outlook Address Books on an infected computer and from different files on a
hard disk.
The
worm is capable of spreading itself in Kazaa P2P
(peer-to-peer) file sharing networks. The Fizzer worm locates the Kazaa shared folder on an infected computer and copies
itself there with random names. Any person who connects to an infected computer
and executes files downloaded from its shared folder becomes infected with the
worm.
The
worm records users' keystrokes and writes them into an ISERVC.KLG file located
in the Windows folder. This file can be picked by a hacker, so he can get
access to users' login names and passwords as well as to their confidential
data
F-Secure
provides a special disinfection tool for the Fizzer
worm. The tool can be downloaded freely from their ftp site: